Electric Consumer

Editor: Katerine G., Editor & Data Researcher · Research & publishing: Electric Consumer Editorial Team · Data retrieved · Sources named on this page: EIA-861 · How we got these numbers · Report an error

Outage time per customer: 4 h 40 min in Mississippi, 57 min in Illinois

4.9xmore outage time in Mississippi than in Illinois, 2024

Weighted by home accounts, the utilities in Mississippi reported 280 minutes without power per customer in 2024. In Illinois it was 57 minutes. Major event days are left out.

What we found

44 states have enough reporting utilities to rank. 7 are left out because too few utilities or too few customers report.

The typical outage figure here is a floor. Storms that EIA classes as major events are removed, so the worst days are not in these numbers.

Map

Outage time per customer: 4 h 40 min in Mississippi, 57 min in IllinoisNew Mexico: 172 minTexas: 153 minKentucky: 146 minOhio: 133 minGeorgia: 210 minArkansas: 196 minOregon: 127 minPennsylvania: 130 minMissouri: 107 minNorth Carolina: 144 minUtah: 104 minVirginia: 245 minWYWVNew York: 143 minIndiana: 124 minKansas: 114 minIdaho: 153 minNevada: 64 minIllinois: 57 minVTNew Jersey: 103 minMinnesota: 91 minMaryland: 77 minIowa: 84 minHINew Hampshire: 84 minRIConnecticut: 74 minMontana: 150 minArizona: 70 minNebraska: 68 minWashington: 158 minSouth Dakota: 57 minCalifornia: 164 minALWisconsin: 98 minMississippi: 280 minColorado: 119 minOklahoma: 122 minTennessee: 168 minLouisiana: 219 minMichigan: 160 minMassachusetts: 77 minFlorida: 67 minAlaska: 194 minNorth Dakota: 85 minSouth Carolina: 93 minMaine: 273 minDelaware: 67 minDC
  • 57 min to 77 min
  • 77 min to 107 min
  • 107 min to 143 min
  • 143 min to 168 min
  • 168 min to 280 min

Highest and lowest

Ten longest outage times

minutes without power per customer per year, major events excluded, 2024

  1. 1Mississippi280 min
  2. 2Maine273 min
  3. 3Virginia245 min
  4. 4Louisiana219 min
  5. 5Georgia210 min
  6. 6Arkansas196 min
  7. 7Alaska194 min
  8. 8New Mexico172 min
  9. 9Tennessee168 min
  10. 10California164 min

Ten shortest outage times

minutes without power per customer per year, major events excluded, 2024

  1. 35Massachusetts77 min
  2. 36Maryland77 min
  3. 37Connecticut74 min
  4. 38Arizona70 min
  5. 39Nebraska68 min
  6. 40Delaware67 min
  7. 41Florida67 min
  8. 42Nevada64 min
  9. 43South Dakota57 min
  10. 44Illinois57 min

How we computed it

  1. For each utility with 1,000+ home accounts, take SAIDI without major event days from EIA-861 2024.
  2. Weight each utility by its home accounts and average within the state: sum(accounts × SAIDI) ÷ sum(accounts).
  3. Keep states with at least 3 reporting utilities and enough coverage of home accounts.
  4. Divide the longest by the shortest: 280.0 ÷ 56.9 = 4.92.

Formula: state SAIDI = sum(accounts x utility SAIDI) / sum(accounts); ratio = highest / lowest

All 44 places

Outage time per customer: 4 h 40 min in Mississippi, 57 min in Illinois: every place
Mississippi12804 h 40 min12
Maine22734 h 33 min3
Virginia32454 h 05 min12
Louisiana42193 h 39 min6
Georgia52103 h 30 min30
Arkansas61963 h 16 min13
Alaska71943 h 14 min5
New Mexico81722 h 52 min6
Tennessee91682 h 48 min41
California101642 h 44 min19
Michigan111602 h 40 min18
Washington121582 h 38 min20
Texas131532 h 33 min45
Idaho141532 h 33 min6
Montana151502 h 30 min3
Kentucky161462 h 26 min29
North Carolina171442 h 24 min35
New York181432 h 23 min4
Ohio191332 h 13 min29
Pennsylvania201302 h 10 min5
Oregon211272 h 07 min9
Indiana221242 h 04 min28
Oklahoma231222 h 02 min17
Colorado241191 h 59 min21
Kansas251141 h 54 min11
Missouri261071 h 47 min26
Utah271041 h 44 min8
New Jersey281031 h 43 min3
Wisconsin29981 h 38 min23
South Carolina30931 h 33 min20
Minnesota31911 h 31 min34
North Dakota32851 h 25 min8
Iowa33841 h 24 min12
New Hampshire34841 h 24 min3
Massachusetts35771 h 17 min12
Maryland36771 h 17 min6
Connecticut37741 h 14 min5
Arizona38701 h 10 min11
Nebraska39681 h 08 min9
Delaware40671 h 07 min3
Florida41671 h 07 min17
Nevada42641 h 04 min5
South Dakota435757 min9
Illinois445757 min12

44 rows. Also as a plain file: facts/data/outage-minutes.csv.

CSV

What this does not show

Utilities choose how to measure outages, and the major-event rule differs between them. A low number can mean good wires or good luck with the weather that year.

Sources, dates and licences

Sources
SourceData periodRetrievedLicence
EIA-861 annual electric power industry report, 2024 finaldata year 2024 (2015 to 2023 files for history)1 Oct 2026U.S. government data, public domain; EIA asks for citation

All source data are U.S. government publications. The tables and charts on this page are our own computations from them; how the sources are joined.

Related

Most reliable power by state · Citing this page · Facts feed

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Questions

What is SAIDI?

Minutes without power per customer in a year, averaged over all customers served. It is an IEEE 1366 measure.

Which state has the longest outages?

Mississippi, with 280 minutes in 2024.

Which has the shortest?

Illinois, with 57 minutes.

Why are some states missing?

7 places do not have enough utilities reporting both numbers to rank fairly.

Are hurricanes included?

Not when EIA-861 reporting marks them as major event days. The all-events figure is on the major outage rankings.

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4.9x more outage time in Mississippi than in Illinois, 2024